.Passing on food from local food kitchens in Athens. Those who work at the kitchens says there are always new people who show up. | Agence France Presse

****
The photo is from a gallery attached to an article at der Spiegel… the close of the article:

[T]he psychologist Eleni Bekiari knows what dark thoughts the crisis and its consequences have brought to Athenians. She staffs Klimaka’s telephone number “1018.” It is a 24-hour suicide hotline, and its statistics are clear. In 2010, there were about 2,500 calls made to the number. In 2011, there were twice as many. “Most of those who call us are women,” she says. “On the other hand, it’s usually the men who end up taking their lives.”

Greece traditionally has one of the lowest suicide rates in Europe, but the increase has been dramatic. Since the beginning of the crisis, the suicide rate has almost doubled. In 2011, there were almost six suicides per 100,000 citizens. When the callers to the suicide hotline are asked for their reasons for suicidal thoughts, Bekiari says, they often answer with two words: the crisis.

Longview, WA – On Friday, members of the ILWU and the labor community named the Occupy Movement as key to the settlement reached Thursday between ILWU Local 21 and the Export Grain Terminal (EGT). The contract finally provides for the use of ILWU labor in the grain terminal at the Port of Longview.

After staging the December 12 port shutdowns in solidarity with Local 21, the West Coast Occupy Movement planned coordinated action together with labor allies for a land and water blockade of the EGT ship in Longview, should it attempt to use scab labor to load. Occupys in states where EGT’s parent company Bunge has its growth and operations were also planning actions against the company on the day of the arrival of the ship.

“This is a victory for Occupy in their involvement in forcing negotiations. Make no mistake – the solidarity and organization between the Occupy Movement and the Longshoremen won this contract,” said Jack Mulcahy, ILWU officer with Local 8. “The mobilization of the Occupy Movement across the country, particularly in Oakland, Portland, Seattle, and Longview were a critical element in bringing EGT to the bargaining table and forcing a settlement with ILWU local 21.”

“West Coast Occupys had already demonstrated their ability to stage such a blockade by shutting down ports along the West Coast on December 12th, as well as the Port of Oakland on November 2nd,” said Anthony Leviege, ILWU Local 10 in Oakland. The Occupy Movement shut down ports in order to express solidarity with port truckers and Local 21, as well as responding to a nationally-coordinated eviction campaign against Occupy.

Negotiations progressed to the point where Longshore workers began loading the merchant vessel Full Sources on Tuesday. “When any company ruptures jurisdiction it is a threat to the entire union. The union jobs wouldn’t be back in Longview if it weren’t for Occupy. It’s a win for the entire class of workers in the Occupy Movement in demonstrating their organizational skills,” said Leviege.

“It is clear that the port shutdowns on November 2nd and December 12th, and the impending mobilization in Longview, is what made EGT come to the table. When Governor Gregoire intervened a year ago nothing was settled – non-ILWU workers were still working in the port. It wasn’t until rank and file and Occupy planned a mass convergence to blockade the ship that EGT suddenly had the impetus to negotiate.” Said Clarence Thomas, an officer of ILWU Local 10. “Labor can no longer win victories against the employers without the community. It must include a broad-based Movement. The strategy and tactics employed by the occupy Movement in conjunction with rank and file ILWU members confirm that the past militant traditions of the ILWU are still effective against the employers today.”

EGT itself made evident the company’s concern about Occupy’s role in the conflict in the January 27 settlement agreement: “The ILWU Entities shall issue a written notice to The Daily News and the general public, including the Occupy Movement, informing them of this settlement and urging them to cease and desist from any actions[…].”

“The Occupy Movement and rank-and-file unionists both within and outside of our ranks have forced the company to settle, but this is not over,” says Jess Kincaid of Occupy Portland. “Occupy doesn’t sign contracts. We have not entered into any agreements with EGT, nor do we intend to do so. EGT and its parent company Bunge bribe the government for military escorts, use slave labor in Brazil and systematically avoid contributing anything to our social safety net in the US or abroad. There is no ethic here beyond putting money back in the pocket of the 1% at the cost of working people and thesustainability of the earth.”

“It was the brave action of members of Local 21 blocking thetrain tracks this past summer that inspired the solidarity of the Occupy Movement up and down the West Coast and around the country. It was not until Occupy joined together with Local 21 and its labor allies that the company returned to the table. Governor Gregoire did nothing but let EGT raid Longshore Jurisdiction until Occupy responded to the call for support,” said Paul Nipper of Occupy Longview.

A photograph provided by Israeli Aircraft Industries shows their newly-developed vertical take-off drone, or unmanned aircraft, called the Ghost, ahead of its presentation next week in the AUVSI’s Unmanned Systems North America exhibit in Washington DC. The unit, which is electrical and silent, weighs just four kilograms (nine pounds) and can hover for 30 minutes. It can provide real-time intelligence for ground troops operating in urban areas, or can be used for homeland security purposes. Picture: EPA / ISI

Phoenix, US: Inmates spend their day under tents at the section that houses undocumented immigrants at the jail in Maricopa County [Darren Hauck/EPA]

What is that they have been saying?

The end to combat in Iraq?

Something like that, weeks of video clips of pulling out men (women too I am sure) and materiel… Tens of thousands of texters and video gamers, I guess they want us to think, left to control and command… and many more tens of thousands of contract paramilitaries left to do the job…

As if we have retreated to base, ceased house to house, ceased night patrols, ceased clear and hold, much less opened the prisons and released the political prisoners and the innocents, relinquished control of the air – it is we who control the air space over Iraq – we have stopped none of that anywhere in the world, including at “home”, tho Homeland is more accurate.

**************

Oh For Fuck’s Sake… why not just dispatch Barbara to the WH with the Holy Walker Bush Oil of Office and she can annoint Obby as a younger brother to adopted son Bill C?

It smacks of obeisance to the Lord of Texas…

President Obama plans to call former President Bush on Tuesday when he visits Texas to speak to troops, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

Obama will address soldiers at Fort Bliss, Texas, before he returns to the Oval Office to speak on the formal end of the U.S. military’s “combat mission” in Iraq.

“I don’t believe there are plans to see him, but my sense is, it will be one of the calls he makes tomorrow,” Gibbs told reporters Monday when asked if Obama will speak with Bush.

She can say something so Barbara, so Bushian … like, ”we’ve always liked Negroes. er … Africans. Well… we like some Americans, I know that. More oil Barry?”

AND I see that Simpson survived comparing all of us to nursing calves. No surprise…

Heckuva job Obby.

I even caught the last few mins of his remarks today, and I sure missed the pounding action (maybe below camera view the podium reached out and grabbed him… ). The quote sounded more like a beg to me:

Pounding the lectern, Obama continued:

“Holding this bill hostage is directly detrimental to our economic growth. So I ask Senate Republicans to drop the blockade.”

Protesters demonstrate during demonstrations

Protesters demonstrate in front of a line-up of riot police during demonstrations in Toronto Saturday, June 26, 2010, as the G20 Summit got underway.… (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Oh yeah, so scary. Obviously it was not all sandals, drums and tutus… but come on Toronto.

I saw that the VP of Boeing was there cheering them on. “Them” being the boychicks and two chicklets (Merkel, Kirchener…did Gillard even go?) who ostensibly run the world. FOR the Boeing suits.

So, basically, we had the G-8 and G-20 conflab of waiters and waitresses, there, in a huddle to take orders.

Something they do just as well at home in the provided mansions.

Etc.

******

I caught an extended caller last night on our local talk radio… I admit I am no longer energetic enough to google up and plow thru reports on HB – – – -, the bill that has bounced back and forth between H and S, and has to do with extending Unemployment payments to the long term unemployed (as it is characterised)… Currently it sits tagged onto a mess of a bill. I did read that Olympia Snowe (you know, horrors, a R… of course from the officially designated ”moderate” NE) has formally (by letter to Reid) suggested that Unemployment benefits be addressed in a stand alone bill.

However this caller, who HAS been tracking the bill said the current reality is NOT just that those at the full extension of Unemployment need it continued and are left bereft, but for now, unless you are inside the course of either the initial 26 weeks, or in the course of receiving benefits thru a program that extends it for 13 or 6 weeks, or any of the various other lengths… YOU ARE CUT OFF.

It is not just people who have exhausted the full (current) 99 weeks.

Absolutely horrifying.

****

Something worth hoping for… reading around, as Alex waxes and wanes in the Western Gulf, I see some commentary that if the oil drenched coastal areas can get rain, with no wind to drive the oil inland or deeper into the marshes, the effect MAY be a dilution, a flushing.

Islamist insurgents and Somali government forces engage in running battles in Mogadishu: More than 200,000 people have been displaced in the past two months, while hundreds of civilians are believed to have been killed and wounded [AFP/GETTY]

… and we do cause them to suffer, in our job as Gawd.

Let’s see… Centcom is happy as clams… they are focus war one, 27 countries under their command and hot beds a plenty. No end of mischief and murder, for decades. Mercy is on hold. WMD abound, Iran wants a bomb… ? Hell, I want one! Or, at the least, a gun.

Southern Command salivates to bring “restive” S and C America under control. Bill C to do bed checks in Haiti.

Africom bubbles along. “Somalia has not had a government in 18 years”.. oh surely we can help? That is what we do. Goodness and Kindness and Mercy. We follow people all of their days.

Did you know that Ob visited a slave embarcation point? (How could you miss it?) Yes he did. And a pregnancy clinic in Ghana. Yes he did. Took Michelle along. Optics.

Who can keep track of the wars? I cannot. Who can keep track of the Pretzel Global Tours? I cannot.

And then there is Norcom. That is us. And Canada and Mexico. Big plans there, you can feel it.

Stories all over the place… from Tora Bora, new ones.. to CIA looking odd… are they trying to say they are new at this? Why, I think they are! Hell, in that story, everybody is lying. Panetta and Nancy.. and everyone else. We are total fictions, that is what we are. Ghosts with guns and bombs and planes loaded down with bombs, pack mules of a sort, we send forth to kill and kill and kill again. Drones run out of Nellis Air Force Base, in Nevada.. It’s like video games, they say that as recruitment tactics.. and, it really is. Optics.

Nellis sits in a ”Federal Preserve”, of sorts, encompassing Area 51… and, over all, larger than Switzerland. Classifed.

Sasha wore not one but two – count them if you can – one two buckle your shoe – peace symbol t-shirts in Italy. Here, have some peace, rub their noses in it.

Oasis of the Seas, the largest cruise ship on earth, or an artist’s representation of her and the Aqua Theatre, one of many diversions. Oasis is due to hit the seas late this year.. and construction begins soon on a sister ship, Allure of the Seas. Timing, huh?

I’d say the wealthy will cruise no matter what, but word is around in San Francisco that the “2 – 3 million dollar” local house market is in trouble. Hankies abound. And rentals on houses for the season in the Hamptons are coming down… Not a full crash, as the wealthy “have not canceled summer” but taking a deep hit.

Who knows what the sitch will be in a couple of months… worse is a good prediction. Even Miss Cleo could manage that one……… 8)

NYCO posted this near the end of the last thread… and it is a good fit for this thread…

I see Joseph Tainter’s Collapse of Complex Societies has finally reached mainstream consciousness… in the Canadian media, anyway.

Tainter is still alive and teaching. I wonder what he thinks of all these world economy developments. Especially since his final conclusion (in 1988) was that collapse could no longer happen to any society unless all of them collapsed at the same time. Which appears to be what is happening at present.

Snip from the news article linked above… I’d say we are at blast furnace level for complexity and interdependence…

[C]ompared to the Roman empire, the networks of interdependence in our present global systems are orders of magnitude more complicated — and comparably less resilient. Efficiency, the hallmark of modern economics, is precisely the fine tuning of higher levels of interdependence to minimize duplication and waste. Think of manufacturing with just-in-time delivery systems, or cities which typically store only a three-day supply of food, or hospitals which rely on the daily arrival of drugs, blood and oxygen — Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota reminds us that “most medical equipment and 85% of US pharmaceuticals are made abroad” (Ibid.).

…

Complexity Theory is an uncomfortable subject, particularly given the unsettling stresses we are measuring in food production, climate change, resource depletion, ecosystem damage, pollution and population growth. But the theory has its saving graces. It does make us more aware of our vulnerabilities. And it does argue for simplification and local self-sufficiency, particularly for essentials such as food supply and energy production. The incentive to begin thinking and acting with foresight should compensate for the need to be apologetic.

And… a snip from a related comment of NYCO (which I agree with, and just grit my teeth when I hear that Obama and “his belief in technology” will save us. Quite popular out here, as you might imagine):

[P]ossibly the most unpopular part of Tainter’s theory, the one that would meet the most resistance, is his contention that while there may be technological magic bullets out there to discover and develop that will solve many of our current problems, we cannot possibly afford to discover and develop them: they cost much more than a complex society can afford to spend and still remain intact. In other words, investing more and more into green technology — the holy grail of most forward-thinking politicians and progressives today — will not save our civilization. Our complex civilization will collapse before we ever get near to realizing actual net benefits from our pursuit of these technologies. […]

***

I am sure this, from the Daily Mail, which is linked at Instapundit, and thus soon to be picked up in the Right and Far Right slots… has the hierarchy girding their loins for battle. And drooling – where ever it is they drool from…..

[T]he first protests began a month ago when the left-wing union coalition, the Collective Against Exploitation, demanded a £180 a month pay increase for low-wage earners.

President Nicolas Sarkozy sent his minster for overseas departments to the island to meet with union leaders on response to the demands.

But the racial tensions which have been simmering for decades exploded into full-scale rioting, with colonial descendants who own 90 per cent of the wealth becoming the focus of the violence.

The unrest was further aggravated last week when wealthy white landowner Alain Huyghues-Despointes publicly criticised mixed-race marriages and said he preferred to ‘preserve his race’.

In Paris, the violence has provoked divisions in Mr Sarkozy’s cabinet with black minister Rachida Data acknowledging that Guadeloupe suffered from ‘a problem with the distribution of wealth’. …

This comment of diane’s fits in here… her comment and snip from the SF Gate link… and I am sure (tho I did nto bother to google) that the authors are coming at Obama from the right.. but no matter. I don’t care anymore. I have no clue where the Savior stands, not with me I am certain of that.

[M]eanwhile, plans for detention at home are being expanded under Democratic Party leadership. On Jan. 22, Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., a former judge who was impeached and removed from the bench before being elected to Congress, introduced HR645, the National Emergency Centers Establishment Act. This bill calls for the establishment of six centers on military installations across the United States. Previous centers were for addressing an “emergency influx of immigrants” or to support “the rapid development of new programs.” These new FEMA centers are “to provide temporary housing, medical and humanitarian assistance to individuals and families dislocated due to an emergency or major disaster.” …

Stories and reports of Northern Command have been coming out for years… 3 years, or so, that I am aware of… and iirc NORCOM went fully active around the time (fall, ’08)that AFRICOM did.

Surge on…..

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About...

An Opera Glasses and Popcorn view of Politics and the Assembled Multitude...

Marisacat -

- Real independent observations on current events with a particular fondness for the follies of the Big Box Blahgers.

Deflates bloated egos like a champion fencer in a balloon warehouse.

- Alan Smithee

Marisacat -

"...polish on a mud wallow"

- Meteor Blades [May 24 at Mcat]

Marisacat -

"... doyenne of donkle deconstruction"

- Who is IOZ [January 2 2007]

Marisacat -

"... hardened professionals and their primary strength lies in their being completely unconflicted."

"... the primary difference is that on the level of criticizing other blogs and bloggers, they can actually do some damage."

So.

As many parts of the United States recover from a devastating series of hurricanes, we end today's show with an update from one of the hardest-hit communities along the Gulf Coast. Port Arthur, Texas, is a fenceline community with several massive oil refineries that flooded during Hurricane Harvey. Just last week, a fire at the Valero oil refinery in Po […]

Six days after Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico, 3.4 million U.S. citizens in the territory remain without adequate food, water and fuel. But as the massive crisis became clear over the weekend, President Trump failed to weigh in, instead lashing out at sports players who joined in protest against racial injustice. It took the president five full day […]

Amid increasing concern over chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated blows to the head, a recent study of the brains of 111 deceased NFL players found all but one were found to have CTE. We speak with Dr. Harry Edwards, sociologist, author and sports activist, who says a consequence of CTE that is largely ove […]

North Korea says Trump's dangerous rhetoric is tantamount to a declaration of war. But even if military officials try to act as a restraint on Trump's hostility, Trump isn't bound by the advice he gets from anyone, says Col. Larry Wilkerson

The Alternative for Germany party, which has moved so far right that it includes neo-Nazis, now has a seat at the table. Meanwhile, both the Christian Democrats and the social democrats lost big, explains TRNN's Shir Hever

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Another Republican attempt to dismantle Obamacare collapsed in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday as the party was unable to win enough support from its own senators for a bill to repeal the healthcare reform law.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Students and faculty at Georgetown Law School gathered on Tuesday to protest that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was delivering an address about the right of free speech on college campuses to an invitation-only audience without giving critics of the Trump administration an opportunity to ask questions.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) told a congressional committee on Tuesday he did not believe his predecessor Mary Jo White knew of a 2016 cyber breach to the regulator's corporate disclosure system, the exact timing of which could not be known "for sure."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican political consultant Roger Stone, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, flatly denied allegations of collusion between the president's associates and Russia during the 2016 U.S. election in a meeting with lawmakers on Tuesday.

Media

from Howl

I'm with you in Rockland
where we wake up electrified out of the coma
by our own souls' airplanes roaring over the
roof they've come to drop angelic bombs the
hospital illuminates itself imaginary walls collapse
O skinny legions run outside O starry
spangled shock of mercy the eternal war is
here O victory forget your underwear we're free
I'm with you in Rockland
in my dreams you walk dripping from a sea-
journey on the highway across America in tears
to the door of my cottage in the Western night

October 7 1955

"a remarkable collection of angelson one stage reading their poetry"
"I think Allen Ginsberg standing up there reading - putting himself on the line - was one of the two bravest things I've ever seen. Remember, it was '55. People had crew cuts, and they looked at you like you were misplaced cannon fodder. The country was being run by Luce publications. It was a dangerous, cold, ugly time, and it was scary. . .
In all our memories no one had been so outspoken in poetry before. We had gone beyond a point of no return. None of us wanted to go back to the grey, chill, militaristic silence, to the intellectual void - to the land without poetry - to the spiritual drabness. We wanted to make it new and we wanted to invent it and the process of it as we went into it. We wanted voice and we wanted vision."
-Michael McClure

Democrats…

Same as goddam fucking forever.
Over and over, in election year after election year, GE and MidTerms both… the Dems start to purr and preen, they stretch luxuriously - at just being TOLD they are going to win [...]
It never fails.
... in February of 2002, looking over the already joyless congressional stragglers willing to be drafted for duty… they barely dreamed, yet, it was even possible (Howard, a different person then, had not arrived to say it could be done)… but one thing was clear, we could not rely on the party to swing it. Could not. You could smell it, they would screw the deal. And I am not talking about Howard and primary issues here. By the end, that was a passing political story. Chuck it on the heap.
[...]
Upshot? The Republicans make it thru. They hold on.